Ridiculous demands from work

[marymarkle]

What ridiculous demands has a workplace made on you?
I left a job a few month ago that insisted I print off and file every email with clients, even though all emails with clients also had to be saved in files on a server. And it really was every email, including emails arranging meetings.
Surely there must be other ridiculous workplaces out there?

Working for a fairly small charity. We all loved the work (healthcare related) and I had the most amazing team, skilled, professional and caring. Nothing too much trouble for them. No perks whatsoever, minimum legal entitlement for A/L, sick pay etc, no pension provision, pay pretty lousy when compared to NHS afc.

We used to close over Christmas and new year as there wasn’t much uptake from clients at that time. As we were all so flexible about our hours etc and didn’t clock watch, were happy to attend out of hours functions for fundraising etc. throughout the year, the Christmas closure was seen as a thank you to staff.

Cue new lot of Trustees who didn’t like us getting ‘something for nothing’ as they saw it, so decided that we would now have to use A/L for the four or five days in question. Result was a highly pissed-off and demoralised staff group who now aren’t quite so generous with their time and quite rightly demand TOIL for any additional hours they put in. 🤷‍♀️

Too all those who are only allowed to use black pens.....it shows up easier when photocopied. Maybe not so important nowadays where everything is paperless.

@TheLostTargaryan was this guy Irish? He sounds exactly, and I mean exactly, like the prick I used to work for. He never kept a job longer than a year either so always moving around

Nope, not Irish. An English fella.
He'd had the restaurant for some years before I came along. I don't know where he had been before that but he made an absolute fortune. He bulk bought cheap shit wine and had a couple of bottles of the good stuff at the bar. I'm astounded that no one ever noticed or complained. The whole theme of the restaurant was quite clever and niche and the guests loved it thinking they were eating at a naice place. All front though. It looked great until you saw behind the scenes. Even the bar was actually cheap chipboard with a single sink full of ice for chilling. From the front it was very beautiful and looked pretty swanky. Not so much in reality.

As much as I thought he was a dick, he was clever at making money I suppose.

"Then our manager pointed at two people and said “If you don’t these two will be out of a job”
It was less than 10 years ago as well - we all took a pay cut ."

Awful. There's a whole film on a similar subject. (Good, but a bit repetitive).

Worked briefly at one company a few years back, who would hand out P45s at the weekly team "town hall" meeting of the whole company - usually the first they heard of it.

Cheers Gwenhwyfar I’ll have a watch.
It was the kind of place where we all had a bit of Stockholm syndrome , greatful to have a job with recession looming.

Awful time as a few earner in a law firm with a bullying partner - everything I did was wrong. It was like she wanted to drive me to the depths of despair. Her boss realised what she was doing when I became a shell of a person.

He took me on board for a bit but then got a trainee solicitor.

I lived away from home because this was the best job on offer apparently - it's a good well known firm. I went to my Nan's house she lived about an 1.5 away one weekend and told her everything she then called my mum (I was straight out of law school) and said she's never seen me looking so ill and depressed.

That Partner drove me out of the law. It was petty things like asking the secretaries to keep an eye on me - I had bad toothache and had run out of painkillers - I went to the pharmacy with permission and asked if anyone wanted me to pick anything up - one of the secretaries reported me for asking 2 people who i shared a room with if they wanted anything! They said I should not ask others - the following day my tooth was so bad I ended up in A&E. My clot had fallen out and my gum and nerves were exposed I had a fever and was in absolute agony - I drove myself to the hospital but had to take high level painkillers that made it unsafe for me to drive back - I had no one to look after me - no one at work cared about the immense pain I was in - my boss was so so cruel. I've seen her out and about - she looks like a bitter person. Over the years her nastiness has been displayed in her face.

I was so glad to hand in my notice. That was one of numerous incidents - luckily I shared a room with a lovely lawyer at one point who became my advocate and really tried to stand up for me. He left then it went further down hill.

Worked as a home carer and the company broke their own rules about 'taking children to work'.
Made us work on our days off (no childcare), so of course taking a 2 and 3 year old to client's houses was not ideal. Some carers left their kids locked in their cars so they could do the job (15 min call out).
Left soon after that!

When the statistical analysis of pupil performance and predicted grades was introduced in schools it soon became apparent as to who understood statistics and who didn’t.

A new Head came and I was informed that all my pupils should be above average.

Others were given targets to improve x% a year. After a couple of years results would have been well above 100%.

We didn’t ask or question. Most hoped she’d be gone soon, or if not that they’d cope with their % shortfall problem next September.

I think some of these posts are more ridiculous bosses than ridiculous demands .
I used to work somewhere my manager went on maternity leave for a few weeks then would bring baby in for a couple of hours , fine she had her own office and baby would sleep . Anyway she would leave baby on her desk to sleep . So one day baby fell off desk on floor . You'd think she would learn from that well she stopped leaving baby on desk but would still bring baby in .
After a few months she came back to work full time but the baby with her 2 days a week . By this time the baby was almost 1 year old stuck in a hot office all day long . The baby would cry laugh etc well babies do . I just used to think it was a shame that she would prioritise the company over the safety of her own child .

I just used to think it was a shame that she would prioritise the company over the safety of her own child

... And the well-being of her employees.

Now, don't get me wrong: the latter are obviously a lot better placed to look after themselves than a baby. But I'd personally find it stressful to try and get stuff done with a baby crying in the background. I'd also feel apprehensive about stuff that just happens in a workplace: making some jokes, having a conference call on speaker phone,... All sorts of things, really.

I like babies, but the thought of one in my office actually horrifies me.

My radiator draping colleague was told again today that draping sweaty running tights around the office was antisocial and unhygienic. He had a massive strop but after about half an hour he removed them and proceeded to sulk for the rest of the day. This is a middle-aged man, not a teenager!

@TakenForSlanted
We all hated it and everyone thought it was ridiculous. It's like some people are blindsided.
I also think she was a little scared to take time off / reduce her hours fear or being replaced .
At the time I would be really pissed off and it was a reason I left . Health & safety was not something that was considered for anyone.

First job, for a company run by elderly husband and wife. He was charming but she was a vile, spiteful old bag who used to write terrible racial slurs in our contractors’ database. £12k salary. Contract states six months’ probation (ridiculous for such a junior position) during which either side only has to give a week’s notice. A week before my probation ends, I hand in my week’s notice - not deliberate, just how it worked out, so vile old bag throws a hissy fit and refuses to pay my outstanding holiday pay, saying I have “left them in the lurch”.

No, you wizened old crow, this situation is entirely of your own making because you didn’t trust your employees. Thankfully the lovely accountant made sure I got my holiday money.

It's not as bad as so many of these, but one of my first jobs after uni was in a team of 4 where we had to cover phones/comms from 6am-6pm.

At one point all the other 3 were off for various reasons so I was left trying to do 4 full time jobs across that 12hr shift. I added a auto-reply to the team mailbox politely saying there may be a slight delay to jobs received, but we would be back to normal asap.

One of the bosses went mad and told me to remove it as "it looked bad". So it ended up looking even worse with everyone calling and emailing twice as much to chase up their jobs because they had been kept in the dark.

(That was a job where a new line manager eventually told me to leave because (without sounding boastful) I could do so much more than that job. She was right, as it happens.)

TBH, I was much happier at work when working for myself, offering services but rarely products (to avoid warranty hassle). Office work is OK in government jobs: there are national guidelines, unions and proper complaints procedures... you can swap departments if you hit a personality clash. In smaller companies, you can encounter a little Hitler who thrives on petty nonsense, so be nice but assertive, know your rights and don't let anyone mess with you. Automatic promotion of the owner's family is a pain, too, especially if it goes to their heads, and the owner will always back them however unreasonably. Driving jobs can entail spy-in-the-cab trackers nowadays. Self-employment means you are freer, but get no paid sick or annual leave, though mostly you can take time off to suit you. You have to manage your own accounts and tax, of course. Overall, though, freedom is worth a lot.

I did this job from 1996-2013. From 2007 we were taken over by the big company from a family business so things changed big time. 2009 I developed depression from the pressure it put on me but a job is a job. It was a petrol station. On the evening shift (3pm to 11pm) you were alone to manage the site, regardless of how long you’d worked there it was your job to do everything. A typical night would consist of authorising the pumps, making sure the customers were using the pumps correctly/not driving off,serving customers, stocking up everything (sweets,drinks,cigs,oil,crisps,snack foods). Then you were also responsible for a zone per night so you might have to take all the sweets off,clean the shelf,check dates,put back in correct date order, in between serving customers and stocking up everything else. You could end up with a tanker delivery so we had to close the forecourt down before they were due as our site was awkward. You had to stand out there in all weathers watching the delivery to make sure they were delivering the correct fuels. That could take 45mins out of your night. Floor sweeping and mopping. Toilet cleaning. Good luck if you needed the loo because it was at the other end of the building and obviously you couldn’t use it if there was a customer on the forecourt (periods were fun) I developed a condition where if I was working alone I had to make sure I’d pooped before I started work otherwise I’d end up with stomach cramps and I’d have to lock the shop door to use the toilet but I knew if I made it from 3-7pm without cramps I could make it until 11pm. It was weird, doesn’t happen now though. It started when I’d had antibiotics and they upset my tummy while I was at work and then it stuck with me “what if this happens when you’re alone?” Morning shifts were 7am-3pm. Had to get there 30 mins early to polish the pumps (I kid you not) mop islands, stock up gloves/towels, unlock pumps,sort out newspapers,date check fresh stock and reduce if OOD that day,count your float,wait for pumps to turn on, on weekend you had to put all the inserts into the newspapers (Sunday was a freaking nightmare). 40hrs a week at few pence over minimum wage. 17 freaking years of my life spent there. Sorry for long post, didn’t want to drip feed lol